Insurance for multinational family

Question

I am a British citizen married to a French citizen, living in France. We have a son of 2.5 years old who is a French citizen. We have just booked a holiday to Spain, and by booking the various bits ourselves, and by booking different bits through websites in the UK and France we have saved ourselves a fortune compared with a package from a travel agent.

However, we are having trouble finding travel insurance that will cover this kind of scenario. For example I have searched for "expat holiday insurance" and the offer I found worked fine for me, an expat but not for my wife/son because the insurer explicitly only insures people of UK/USA/Australian/NZ/Canadian nationality. I have no idea why it works like this.

Therefore, are there insurers who will cover a group of people with differing nationalities to the same level or will we need to insure ourselves separately?

I assume that recommending specific companies isn't acceptable on the Ts & Cs of the site, but if people can help with terminology that I can then search for, and any experience they have, that'd be great.

(Our flights weren't booked on the same card as the hotel, just to make matters worse!)

Answer 1

I guess that answer might depends on the country you are living in. I am in a similar situation as you are and I am not aware of any nationality related issue. What seems to be an issue is that many insures require you to be a resident (not a citizen) of the country they are in. I am for example a Dutch citizen living in Belgium, but I can't get Dutch travel insurance because I am not a resident of the Netherlands. Often a requirement is that your traveling should start in your home country. So if you first go on business trip and subsequently continue on a personal trip you might not be insured, since the leisure part of the trip starts where your business insurance ends.

Being a multinational family (I really like the term ;) ) things can get complicated especially if your professional and personal life covers different countries.

I found a solution in my credit card, which had this offer that you are insured "by all means". I upgraded to a gold card which costed around 100 Euro annually. With a gold card your trip doesn't need to be paid with that specific credit card to have insurance. In fact I am paying a premium of 100 Euro annually, allthough it is mentioned as service charges for their gold card.

I came to this solution while I was waiting for a delayed flight. Two CC companies were selling their cards and I just started a discussion with both companies.

First I would call some insurance companies in your country of residence and just present them your case. If they really make a fuss about multinational parties, just start calling the major credit cards for advice.

Answer 2

I don't see what the problem with the scenario is - I can buy travel insurance by simply telling an insurer that my family and I will be in Spain for two weeks, and that we won't be taking part in any risky sports (skydiving etc)

They don't ask whether it is booked through a single travel agent or whether we are organising every bit separately.

I am surprised if things are different in France, but here in the UK all the main insurers will do this.

You could also check on your home insurance, or your bank accounts - I know my home insurance and one of my current accounts give me free travel insurance.

Generally with insurers, if you don't fit into one of their boxes they just increase the premium :-)

From @Vince's comment below, I would guess that worst case, you may have to use two insurers, but will have a hunt round for more information on this as it doesn't seem to tie in with examples I have seen in the past.